this is the post where i group together some of the less epic things we did while at the keweenaw peninsula. and our travel day. we were trying hard to fill the days but also not make everyone crazy. its a delicate balance for sure. on our second day in the area, i was able […]
dining
up to the u.p.

for those unfamiliar with the geography of michigan, most of it is the big mitten shaped bit, north of indiana, tucked between three great lakes. that’s where all of our first few michigan excursions took place. but. the main destination of our trip was the upper peninsula, commonly known as the U.P., and that is […]
the first step to olympic gold in curling.

i’ll be the first to admit. when derek told me that he booked a curling lesson, i was not that excited. i didn’t think it would be an activity our family would enjoy. i couldn’t have been more wrong. the folks at the leelanau curling club made the experience phenomenal. they were so patient and […]
travel day. two capitals, fabric, and an old friend.

after the rock house hike and otherworld, we made many more stops en route to our next accomodations, making this one day (june 12 to be exact) quite long. while still in columbus, we checked another state capitol building off our list. the kids are still such troopers about this. then we made the first […]
december hap-hap-happenings.

now here is the part where i try to remember all the little moments from last december. the day to day stuff. when it wasn’t actual christmas or hazel’s birthday or cookie baking mayhem. let’s seeeeee. i always love the first few mornings after the tree is up and i have my coffee in the […]
47th birthday chronicles.

i normally wouldn’t have an entire post dedicated to a random birthday, but i did some cool stuff, ate some good food, hung out with fun friends, and well, i didn’t want my november post to have 60 photos, so here we are. first of all. two days before my birthday, six weeks after my […]
a little fall trip to the mountains

we didn’t do a very good job of participating in fall themed activities this year. pumpkin patches and whatnot. but, we did manage to squeeze in a weekend excursion to asheville to get the heck out of winston-salem and see some of the color changing leaves of the mountains. we drove out after school on […]
iceland. day ten. and 10.5.glymur waterfall, reykjavik.

our last full day in iceland began bright and early when we awakened in our little patch of grass on the property of a local farmer. we had hoped to get some breakfast in a little reception/lounge type area inside, but it wasn’t open by the time we were ready to leave, so another day […]
iceland. day nine.godifoss and a whale.

it was always going to be pretty hard to follow up our day eight adventures in storurd, but day nine really outdid itself as probably the dumbest day in iceland. we kicked things off with an early morning awakening in myvatn, or “lake of midges”. fortunately, the midges are all late sleepers, so it wasn’t […]
iceland. day eight.puffins, storurd, dettifoss/selfoss

day eight. we awakened in our little campground on a fjord in east iceland, borgarfjörður eystri, hoping to avenge the previous evening’s failed puffin viewing attempt. we raced over to climb to the little cliff overlook viewing platform and settled in. we had big plans for the rest of the day, so we were hopeful […]